Heretofore, various methods have been used to repair damaged or defective urethane foam products, such as vinyl skin covered automobile armrests or instrument panels. For example, it is known to inject a plasticizer into voids formed beneath the outer skin. However, the plasticizer tends to "wick" from the void to produce a lake-like appearance in the skin.
Speer Pat. No. 4,659,525 discloses a method consisting of the steps of trimming away externally damaged material, filling the trimmed area with an air drying repair compound, allowing the air drying to occur, covering the repair compound with a heat curable repair compound, which may include appropriate coloring pigment, placing a smooth or suitably textured grained release paper over the repair area, applying heat to effect the curing, allowing time to cool, and removing the smooth or grained release paper.
Dubois Pat. No. 4,390,333 discloses an apparatus for use in closing a hole in the walls of storage tanks, including an expandable bladder mounted at the end of a rigid tube which, in turn, is connected to a nozzle connected by flexible tubes to a foam generating kit. The bladder is manoeuvered by the rigid tube partially through the hole and filled with foam material to expand as required to plug the hole in the wall of the storage tank.
Melvold et al Pat. No. 4,329,132 is another hole plugging system for container walls to prevent leakage therethrough. This system includes a flexible nonelastic bag which is inserted in a folded condition partially through the hole to be plugged, with a substantially larger inner closed end than outer open end, and adapted to receive foamable material through said open end so as to expand as required to plug the hole.